Registering the coordinate system associated with an image of the patient with the coordinate system associated with a medical tracking system enables the display of intraoperative information, (e.g., a representation of a medical tool, navigational information) on the image of a body part of interest of a patient, at the respective positions and orientations thereof. Thus, the user may see such intraoperative information along with the patient body part of interest.
U.S. Patent Application Publication U.S. 2011/0098553 to Robbins et al directs to an automatic registration of a Magnetic Resonance (MR) image with an image guidance system. The registration is achieved by placing MR visible markers at known positions relative to markers visible in a camera tracking system. The markers are fixed to a common fixture which is attached to a head clamp together with a reference marker (employed when the markers are covered or removed). The tracking system includes a camera with a detection array for detecting visible light and a processor arranged to analyze the output from the array. Each object to be detected carries a single marker with a pattern of contrasted areas of light and dark intersecting at a specific single feature point thereon with an array around the specific location. This enables the processor to detect an angle of rotation of the pattern and to distinguish each marker from the other markers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0078236 to Schoepp, directs to a method for automatically registering the coordinate system associated with a navigation system with a coordinate system associated with a scan image. Initially, a camera assembly of a navigation system, which includes fiducial markers, is fixedly attached to the patient (e.g., with an adhesive). Thereafter, a scan image of the patient with the camera is acquired. Scan image includes the camera with the fiducial markers. The registration module automatically recognizes and identifies the fiducial markers visible in the scan image and determines the position of the camera assembly therefrom (i.e., the position of the fiducial markers with respect to the camera coordinate system and to the focal geometry of the camera are known). The registration module automatically registers the camera space with respect to the position of the patient in the scan image by identifying the position of the camera coordinate system within the scan image. Upon automatic registration of the camera, the tracking of a surgical tool is immediately available through the known relationships between the surgical tool, the camera coordinate system, the scan image coordinate system.